These are good points. I tend to think people overestimate having to stay when a game is good, unless it's REALLY good. Like, if you're a 10bb/hr winner and you're making 20bb/hr and stay for four extra hours you expected to make 80bb. But, if that throws off your schedule and you're exhausted the next day and don't play, you broke even on expected earn.

You definitely make a good point about the floor you don't like, or whatever. It's annoying dealing with bad service in the casino or bad floors.

It depends greatly on the situation you end up in, I'm sure. I think of it more as the two people at a party...

"How do you like your job?"

"It's good, you know.. I like it, (reason X), so yeah... I like it."

But really they don't at all. Now, if you like the *life* that job gives you and that's worth it, that's fine. The same can be said of poker, and I also find poker enjoyable far more often than I think I'd find something else enjoyable. I also find hope to be worth a lot... I would rather be staring down difficult challenges with the goal being the freedom/enjoyment I'm after, than staring down 35 years in a job that I don't enjoy to retire and live the normal "American dream," life.

I'm more motivated/inspired by the dreams/goals I'm pursuing than by the money side of it. Like right now if you asked me if I'd rather have 100K or a bracelet, I'd take the bracelet. Would I rather have a corporate job paying 100K or an online business I built from the ground up making a passive 40K? Give me the online business.

I'm certainly trying to make money (and a lot of it, even), but I'm trying to create the life I want, not fill the life I have with a lot of money.

I just mainly want to get up every day and do something I love, and some days have the freedom to do something different... Experiences and freedom are a more valuable currency to me.

Again, I don't fault anyone who sees it differently or wants the security and stability of a full-time job. I don't think less of anyone who has chosen that situation. Your gig sounds pretty good, and if I was offered that I'd think long and hard about it, but I'm guessing you're pretty lucky as far as that goes... and for me, I'd need at least four weeks of vacation to start I think.

Thanks!

Thanks pure, you too!

Sounds pretty good, how much vacation? What are you doing now (if you don't mind me asking)?

Best part was like 8 hours later, he ordered one again. The dealer looked at me and mouthed, "NINE SUGARS???" and I smiled and nodded and said quietly, "Wait til it gets here..."

Thanks! Hope you have a good year too! I'm able to play all over, but for now I'm just sticking close to home in Baltimore. Depending on how things are going after the first 10 days, I may re-evaluate that... Especially if I'm back up at 2/5.

Looks like I'll have my first snow issue Thursday/Friday, and it's on days my secret backup plan is not an option unfortunately. Could be time for Plan C!

Meanwhile, Day 4 is underway as of about 10 minutes ago.

+1

Almost six figures two years in (in a fairly LCOL Midwest city), pretty much complete autonomy on working hours as long as my minimum amount of **** gets done, and a "take as much as you like and is reasonable" vacation policy.

Pretty good gig if you can get it.

I drive about 1-1.5 hours for poker though, which kinda sucks and makes it hard to play besides on weekends unless I want to be tired and not see my wife at all.

Go, go, go! Better go for 13-14 hours today if Thursday and Friday may be slow.

Thanks Kato! The plan for today is 15, but I did get here just under 30 mins later than expected. I am trying not to force myself if I'm really dragging and I'm past 12 or 13 hours on the day, because I don't want the lasting effect to more than offset the extra hours and 12+ is still gaining ground relative to the pace and letting me bank it for some easier days later. If I feel good I may push it to 16 due to the forecast.

My turnaround time from leaving last night to being seated in a game today was 9 hours and 42 minutes. That's not bad, but the sleep time was only about 6 hours, which is the minimal amount I want. It took me about 2 hours to use the foam roller, stretch, eat, use a heating pad, unwind and fall asleep. I'd like to get that down to an hour. It took me two hours to get to the casino, which I can trim at least 30 minutes off of (I was recalculating my roll and planning when to move back up). It's important in these bets to remember that you have to spend time eating, making coffee, showering, etc (in before someone suggests I go full bore degen). I'm also stretching and using heat and a foam roller in the morning, which is another 10-15 minutes.

I'd be interested in hearing from the few of you who posted about these cushy gigs

1. What degree you hold (major and school)

2. Where it is/was located

3. Your age and how much experience you had when you got it

4. How much overtime was there

5. How was workplace morale

A few of you have made it sound like six figure jobs where you surf the net all day, get unlimited vacation and make a few charts a day grow on trees... but that's obviously not the case. Statistics on income and employment tell us that.

I've got a film degree from a mid-tier state school. I started making good money right out of school because I got into sales because, well, film (and broadcasting, and communications, and etc.) doesn't pay well. If you learn how to sell, you can make bank, call your own shots, take as much time off as you want, and never come into the office if you don't want to.

To be fair, sales isn't cushy at times - you gotta bust your ass. But when you do and your skills are sharp, you can write your own ticket. Not sure you have what it takes to bust ass given your lack of volume at the poker table. Only you can answer that 100% though.

hmmmm I appreciate that not everyone is driven by $$$ but this doesn't really make any sense for a professional poker player.

Perhaps you are being hyperbolic??

If you want a bracelet I bet they are easy to find in Vegas pawn shops.

Not really, there's a number where it would cross over obviously, but I don't know where it is. 100K isn't life changing, it just bumps me up a couple stakes. Winning a bracelet is, to me, a special accomplishment.


Doesn't mean anything if you didn't win it!

I would argue it doesn't mean much either way. Their prevalence in the secondary marker supports my position.

1) BBA in MIS from an ok but not great state school. Company didn't recruit my school though.
2) Dallas (cost of living at the time among the lowest in the country)
3) 23 yrs old, No experience.
4) 0 hours of overtime, rarely worked a full 40 hours. Did have to be in a pager rotation which means at times you were on call to trouble shoot issues. We had a rotation of like 6 people, so one week every 1.5 months..not too bad but can be annoying.
5) Very high

The first 3 months of my job I literally had nothing to do which sounds great but actually sucks quite a bit.

I recall a pawnshop in Plano was selling one of TJ Cloutier's on ebay.

Before I got in the poker world I thought it would be amazing to win a bracelet. Now that I'm in it, I think they are completely worthless. However, if they are of value to Cuse then who are we to judge?

That makes sense for sales although it's not cushy like the other jobs people described. I think I'd be good at sales, but I'm confident I'd hate it. I know I'd despise cold calling or knocking on doors, it just makes me very uncomfortable. I suppose B2B sales might be different.

As for having what it takes to bust my ass, poker is not the best assessment of that. I worked 60-80 hours a week my first year out of school in broadcasting for $13,000. I'd often sleep from like 2a-6a then two or three days a week I'd get a two hour nap in the afternoon between the office work and the game.

The next year, I worked three jobs and never passed up an open shift in my broadcasting gig when people asked out. I picked up 70-80 shifts in 7 months. Some days I'd work 9-5 in a web design job and 6p-3a in a broadcasting job, with a 45-60 minute drive in between. I'd have to run across the street in a 10 minute break to get food.

While I was grinding up my bankroll in poker I may have only played 60-80 hours a month, but I was also working 2 part time jobs in broadcasting, doing freelance work when available and also doing ghostwriting on the side. At one point I worked over 50 days in a row.

To some extent when I made poker my primary job, it was a reprieve and I was going I with a degree of burnout already.

So, I admit I've been lazy at times in poker the last couple years, but overall in my life I've been a very hard worker.

To each his own. It will mean a great deal to me when I win one. I know a lot of people don't care about them but plenty do as well. They also mean a lot to people who are only casually aware of poker, which can have value in some ways.

So from day 1 it was cushy? What was the position? Did you have connections or just apply and get it? Also when was it? Sometimes timing with a location and industry is key, like I'm guessing right now Houston is one of the better spots to be looking, from what I've heard. If I found an opportunity like that in a field I thought I'd enjoy long term I'd consider it, I guess the thing is I don't have a ton of incentive to look for it.

Yeah, he got rid of one or more of his to try to offset his craps losses.

It's kind of one extreme or the other in the poker world. I think winning one is pretty cool and winning three or more is a tremendous honor to be proud of (because we all know any fool can win one poker tournament).

I look at poker as more than just a job/money making venture, it's also about achievement to me in the long run.

1. Politics, Philosophy & Economics - second tier British University
2. Graduated at 21.
3. Started in advertising at 23 (after 1.5 yr attempting sports career)
4. I worked long hours to get ahead and because I cared a lot, work was often stressful. First made 6 figures at 28 (17 yrs ago)
5. Morale was brilliant by corporate standards, women were amazing, big social scene, great 'apprenticeship' for a lot of different businesses

my last point on number 5 is the other point that hasn't been raised that is very important IMO.

Your plan to set up/invest in a 'business' as side income sounds great (and I'm not having a pop at you...I hear it all the time from poker and other players). But it's ****ing hard and the biggest things that will help you get ahead in a small business are often found in the full time job you work in before setting up your business

1. specific and in depth experience of a role/knowledge of a category/understanding of new developments & gaps in the market
2. contacts/relationships you've made from clients, managers, colleagues along the way
3. the reputation you've built in that field that will give you something to trade on.
4. general professionalism/business sense/ability to function and thrive in a corporate/commercial/small business setting...from P&L and cashflow management, to creating fees & charges, to managing suppliers, to leading and managing and hiring and firing a team, to workflow and inventory issues to managing banks and lawyers and a whole load of other issues that you have no idea you're going to need to handle

I'm trying not to delve too much into my own cv (I set up a small business in 2004 after 10 years in corporate) but there is simply no way I would have been able to thrive without each of those 4 and being a poker player just doesn't give you those things.

You have to be incredibly lucky/really ****ing smart/way harder working than you realise right now for poker not to be a career/wealth cul de sac

Great post, I'll respond more in depth later. I have a notebook full of business ideas, a lot of them revolving around my past experiences/education. The ones I'm most interested in pursuing can lead to passive income, though... So I'm less concerned about connections/relationships since they would mostly apply to businesses where you're actively involved from day to day all along.

Last response because its your life 'passive income' normally comes after a load of business activity that relies on judgement and industry not normally found outside of that profession

We can all write business ideas in notebooks and plan a load of clever things that are going to make money but they don't happen without masses of informed grind

First month was a training program which consisted of learning about different areas of the company and doing fun activities. After that I started working with my group. Thing is they didn't have anything for me to work on so I was mostly going to vendor meetings (where I didn't know WTF was going on) or I was twiddling my thumbs for a few months.

Technically a software developer but that could shift into more of an analyst role or a project manager role based on my own interests.

I just dropped my resume off with recruiters at the school job fair. They recruit marketing from my school but did not recruit IT from there (did not participate in our IT job fair).

My resume was pretty impressive (IMO) despite not having a great GPA. They brought me in for a personality interview where there are like 5 managers and you just shoot the **** with them. In total they hired 22 undergrads, but I was the only one from my school (don't recall if they interviewed anyone else from my school).

This was in 2001, and was not a good time to get a job in IT. The dotcom bubble had just burst. In previous years people were getting tons of offers. Fortunately, the dotcom burst hadn't fully set in yet and many companies were still hiring. I believe 2002 and 2003 were likely far more difficult years to get hired (dotcom had fully burst plus 9/11)

You don't get rich working a job like that though. It's a job that pays a decent income, like poker, but also offers good benefits and job security.

I don't mind working my ass off to get it, including research/learning (I actually greatly enjoy that)... I just want to put that work into something that has a chance to turn into passive or mostly passive income.

I really want to travel a lot and eventually transition from full-time cash pro to MTT pro who plays the big events and the WSOP but isn't grinding year-round... So poker -> business -> passive income sets me up to do that.

Edited to add: that grind may even include additional education tailored toward my business ideas. Stanford has some really cool online options with some of the same professors who teach their regular courses, and I think anyone can sign up.

1. BS in CS from a state school (but 4.0 GPA in CS)

2. Same as my location on here

3. 28 when I graduated college, 30 now

4. OT? Very rarely, I rarely even put in a full 40

5. Best place I have ever worked. Most are very happy.

This is a developer job writing embedded firmware. I am able to get quite a bit done fairly quickly, other developers may put in much more time for the same results. Got a promotion that normally takes 3-5 years 1 year in.

Glgl on the 300 hours.
Lots of good stuff here, especially from Ava and FW.
I'd add my info, but I did engineering and law, plus I still work hard, though only about 40hours/week.

I'm trying to get two dealers to bet each other on whether I make it to 300 hours. I think the needling and encouragement would both be good for motivation!

Definitely the last post on the subject - 'working hard' is a good thing and is a way to outperform your competition

Any cool hands cuse?

You have a captive audience once yet again, keep them entertained!